Officials Bolster Defense of Surveillance

By

Siobhan Gorman

Updated June 16, 2013 5:20 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—Intelligence officials on Saturday amplified their defense of two recently revealed National Security Agency surveillance programs, casting them as carefully managed and limited in their execution.

They also said Americans' phone records are accessed only in a small number of instances. In 2012, for example, fewer than 300 American phone records were reviewed, and then only when that data was "associated with specific...